


Are you willing?

by Azemex



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Bad Parent Janet Drake, Bittersweet Themes, CEO Tim Drake, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Good Parent Janet Drake, Light Angst, She tries at the end, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29017059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azemex/pseuds/Azemex
Summary: She looks at her son, he is taller than her, his face is almost a carbon copy of hers, if it weren’t for the strong jawline and those round blue eyes,Jack’s eyes.Hers are a dark brown, almost black.She wants to ask him.What happened to her? What happened to Jack? What happened to Drake Industries?What happened to him?or Janet Drake meets Timothy Drake-Wayne.
Relationships: Janet Drake & Tim Drake
Comments: 18
Kudos: 259





	Are you willing?

It’s late at night and Janet finds herself in their private collection, Jack is in his office and Timothy was put in his bed by Mrs. Mac. She is alone.

_It’s too tempting_ , she thinks as she stares at the artifact they found during their last digging.

It has a unique story, a little cliche, it reminded Jack of genies and she had to agree with him.

They asked around the locals and one of them told them that you were supposed to rub the object three times and it would give you a glimpse of your greatest failure and your greatest accomplishment in life.

And of course she _wanted_ to know, even if at the end it resulted to be a scam, just one of those stories that people created to give more value to an object. But if it was true…

Was it Drake Industries? Was she going to make history in Gotham one day in the future? What was her greatest failure? Setting herself with Jack? She could say that sometimes she found herself wondering what she was doing with him, the only thing joining them were a few signed papers and a kid. She knew that if they were to divorce Jack would leave her as the CEO of Drake Industries, he was too used to only traveling around the world and not caring about the company that he would let her be the CEO if it meant for him not to be.

And there were offers, from others, richer, more intelligent, able to match her wit, who saw her potential to be more than just the CEO of Drake Industries, wife of Jack Drake and mother of Timothy Drake.

But even then, she still didn’t leave Jack, for some reason she had gotten used to his presence, to his dumb jokes, to his innocent face, to their trips.

That was probably her biggest failure.

At least that’s what she thinks as she rubs the artifact.

One rub, will it show like a vision? 

Two rubs, will she be able to recognize what was the failure and what was the accomplishment?

Three rubs, she wonders what her future awaits her.

A thump surprises her, getting her to almost drop the object but she manages to catch it at the end.

Relief floods her body.

Someone coughs behind her. “What the—?”

She turns around, wondering who it is, did she marry someone else? Is it a possible colleague? Alliance?

What she finds is not what she expects.

The masked person looks at her and then to the object. “What did you do?” he hisses.

She frowns at the person, male, probably in his early twenties. “Excuse me? Who are you?”

“That’s one of Kronos’ objects” he mutters, ignoring her question, “Wondergirl told me about it, you were supposed to rub it three times, and it would show you your—”

“Greatest failure and greatest accomplishment” they say at the first time.

“Oh” the word leaves his mouth forming a perfect circle.

She frowns. “Then, what? Are you supposed to be one of them? Which one? The failure or the accomplishment?” she circles around him, taking advantage of his silence, “If you are connected to me, and you are a _vigilante,_ I assume I decided to finance your…mission, just like that Wayne does” she states, standing behind him, looking at his cape and cowl, it reminds her of another cape vigilante, though the color of his suit is different.

Red is a good color, and this shade of red reminds her of one of the matching suits she shares with her son and husband.

She observes as his jaw clenches at what she says, _interesting._

He inhales, holds it and exhales and ignores her question again. “She said that this object was one of the few that didn’t bite you in the back if you were smart, it was a simple spell, supposed to show you two simple things, through a vision, a dream” he glances at her, “or time travel”

He turns away, his back on her, she watches him as he takes off his cowl, revealing a mop of black hair, long, almost as long as hers. “The spell stops as soon as the person finds out what the failure and accomplishment is, a little tricky, some people fell in commas, living in the memories of past failures and accomplishments, or what could have been their future”

She starts circling him again, he knows and doesn’t try to stop her.

When she stops in front of him she sighs at what she sees. “Timothy, you know what I think about looking down”

“Always look up” they say at the same time.

Timothy, _her son,_ smiles at her. “Hello Mother, it’s been a long time”

* * *

“Tell me what I did wrong”

Of course she did something wrong, _her son_ , Timothy Jackson Drake, is wearing one of those vigilantes’ suits, has eyebags that would rival hers and it’s apparently her greatest failure.

He hums from where he is sitting, wearing on top of his suit one of her pants and an old t-shirt of Jack’s.

She looks at him and wonders again, how can he be her greatest failure when all she sees when she looks at him is Jack and her combined, _and she didn’t even know that was a good combination._

“What makes you think you did anything?” he finally decides to ask.

She scowls. “You are my greatest failure Timothy according to that greek artifact, I find it hard to believe that it is _not_ my fault”

He nods slowly, accepting her reasoning. “You did nothing”

“I’m serious Timothy, what—”

He interrupts her. “And I’m serious too, _Mother,_ you did _nothing”_ his voice stills her.

His voice carries an authority, it makes you pay attention, he sounds like a perfect leader, someone with too much power, _he sounds just like her._

She processes what he said, _nothing_ , she did nothing, then why—

Oh.

_Oh._

“Then” she stops, trying to gather her thoughts, “then what can I do for Timothy to change that?”

“Are you willing to be his Mother?”

She glares at this _adult_ version of her son. “I _am_ his Mother”

He chuckles. “No, you are not”

She scoffs. “Of course I am, I gave birth to him, didn’t I? I’m giving him a house, food, education, everything he needs or wants he gets it”

He smiles sadly at her, she doesn’t like it. “You may be doing that, and he may call you Mother, but that doesn’t mean you are one to him” he stands up and walks around the room. “Father tried, and he became _Dad,_ but at the end he left too”

_He left too._

She stares at his son, who is looking at their private collection as if it was the first time.

“I never got to see the objects up-close, too scared to damage them when I was younger” he explains, as if he knows what she’s thinking.

She gets up and walks to stay beside him. “And when you got older?”

“It was all donated to Gotham Museum of Antiquities and Gotham Natural History Museum”

She stops breathing.

Those.

Those are the museums she was thinking on donating her artifacts, relics and books if she—

If she were to _die._

She looks at her son, he is taller than her, his face is almost a carbon copy of hers, if it weren’t for the strong jawline and those round blue eyes, _Jack’s eyes._

_Hers are a dark brown, almost black._

She wants to ask him.

What happened to her? What happened to Jack? What happened to Drake Industries?

_What happened to him?_

“So, I’m dead and your father is too” she starts, “where does that leave you?”

“It left me being adopted” he replies, walking to her desk, where she has some of her favorite books.

_Hewasaminor. He was a minor and we left him._

“Who took you?” _Who took you away? Who let you go out with that suit? Who?_

He smiles at her. “I should present myself, my name is Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, it’s a pleasure to meet you again” he extends his hand and Janet takes it, too numb to do anything else, _WayneWayneWayne did this to her boy._

“Did he force you to do this?” everyone who is anyone knows that Wayne is Batman, it’s an open secret for the elite of Gotham, or at least she thinks so, she doesn’t want to believe that they are that _dumb._

He chuckles and ignores her _again._ “How old is Timothy?” he asks as he goes through the pages of her book.

“I believe he is around 11” she says, not sure of her answer, is he 12 already? She tries to remember Timothy’s last birthday party, did they make one? Or did they send him a gift? She can’t quite remember, not used to keeping track of her son’s age.

He smiles at her, his eyes reminding her of Jack when he is making an archeological joke that she doesn’t get. “You have lost him already” he walks calmly to the door, as if he didn’t say those last words, “I’m hungry, accompany me to the kitchen” she doesn’t say anything and goes through the door after he opens it for her, they walk in silence, Janet listens as Jack works on his office and when they walk by her son’s room she can’t help herself to stop. Timothy stops behind her, waiting to see what she does.

She opens the door.

No one’s inside.

“Timothy—?” she’s about to look for her son, where is he? She’s sure that by this hour he has been put to bed by Mrs. Mac.

Someone grabs her wrist and closes the door slowly.

“Where is he? He is supposed to be there, Mrs. Mac makes sure he does and—” she stops when she notices that Timothy is laughing, trying to hide it behind his hand.

He shakes his head. “Follow me please” he motions to the kitchen.

She follows him reluctantly, is this a side effect? Does time travel work like this? The person can’t see their other self? Does that mean her Timothy is in the future?

“As I said before, you have lost your son already” he starts, “he is not _11,_ he is 13” he opens the kitchen’s door for her, she walks and goes sit by the island, “he hasn’t been put to bed by Mrs. Mac since he was 7, after all, you said he was old enough to do it himself” he opens the fridge and starts taking out ingredients.

“Your _son_ is 13 and he is already out there as Robin and you didn’t even know” he states as he smashes some potatoes.

She stares at him, at his strong jaw, his straight nose, his face that is almost like hers.

“When did I lose him?” 

He smiles at his hands. “Probably when he was 3”

She takes one big breath and lets it out. She does it again until she feels like the room stops spinning.

He breaks the silence “You are leaving soon?” he nods at the living room, and she remembers their suitcases next to the couch.

“Yes, we only came to sign some contracts and to attend the Perkin’s Gala” she tells him.

“Do you like spicy food?” he asks this time and she blinks at the question, having expected something related to her work.

“Yes, I do”

He nods at her answer and takes out more ingredients.

She licks her lips, preparing herself for what she is about to say. “If you are my greatest failure then what is my greatest accomplishment?”

“Well, that’s for me to know and for you to find out” he smirks at her.

She thinks she likes that look on him, it makes him look deadly, capable, powerful.

He would make an amazing businessman.

He cooks in silence.

She asks. “How do you know?” he hums as he lets the cream sauce heat up, “how do you know what’s my greatest accomplishment?”

She doesn’t see his face from where she is sitting but she is sure he is smiling. “It’s easy, I know what you care about, how your mind works, what you expect, what you want” he grabs two dishes and puts them of the table, “now, let’s eat”

They eat in silence.

Janet ponders on his answer as she bites the chicken, it tastes good and familiar, she tries to remember where she has eaten this before.

She regrets it when she remembers.

_At a Wayne Gala._

“This is good” she says.

“Thanks, my grandfather taught me how to make it”

She bites her tongue, stops herself from saying _Your grandparents are dead._

Instead she only nods and goes back to her thoughts.

If Timothy is her greatest failure, what could be her greatest accomplishment?

She wonders as she looks at her son. Her son who one day will become a vigilante _(who already is)_ , who will lose them, become someone else’s son, who has those big, soft, round blue eyes like his father but when he narrows them they look like Janet's, who when he speaks he makes himself heard.

Who reminds him of her when she’s at the company being the CEO.

Who—

_Oh._

A chuckle distracts her. “So you figured it out,” he bites his lip when he sees her widen eyes, “it’s so easy to read you,” he confesses, “we have the same tells, and I don’t even know how since there wasn’t time for me to learn them and make them mine” he smiles painfully at her, some strands of hair fall in front of his face, hiding his expression.

“What happened to Drake Industries?” she ignores him this time, feeling for the first time in control of something.

He cleans his lips with a napkin. “After you died it didn’t have its CEO, no one to took care of it” she clenches her hands, “it was falling, Jack Drake wasn’t made to be a CEO, he didn’t know how to keep it standing” she knows all of that, _she knows,_ but hearing it from someone else it’s— “at the end, he didn’t get the chance to learn, he died too” she makes eye contact with her son, “and when Bruce Wayne adopted me Wayne Enterprises bought it”

This time she clenches her jaw.

_All her work, all the dedication she is putting on that company, all for nothing._

She thought—

She naively thought that Timothy may have become the CEO of her company, of _their_ company, it’s _his,_ it has his last name, it was his to lead, and when she looks at him she can see how good of a CEO he could be.

And—

He smiles when she finally realizes it, and it’s painful, because she doesn’t like that outcome, it’s not _fair,_ none of this, Timothy was _is_ her son, her blood, she gave birth to him, she took care of him countless nights when he was only a baby, it’s not fair that she _dies_ and someone takes him, changes him, makes him theirs and—

“What company?” her voice is nothing but a whisper, she can hear the defeat on it.

“Wayne Enterprises” he sighs and looks at one of the windows that show their yard, it’s late at night, _dark_ , he wouldn’t be able to see anything but he doesn’t take his eyes off it, “I became the CEO of Wayne Enterprises when I was 17”

She can see it, _this_ Timothy, with tired but knowing eyes, leading one of the biggest companies in the world.

_This is her greatest accomplishment._

He did what she didn’t.

He didn’t settle down with them, he went for more.

And he got it.

_Then why doesn't he look like it’s enough?_

“You deserve the best” she tells him and he finally looks at her with suspicion in his eyes, “I would have loved for you to be the CEO of Drake Industries, I can’t lie about that” she taps her black nails on the table, “but I sincerely hope that where you are is where you deserve to be, where everyone wants the best for you” she leans closer to him and he does the same, “because you deserved so much more than what I could give you, and if they are not giving you what you deserve then you don’t settle down with them”

They stare at each other for what feel like hours.

Until he snorts a couple times and finally laughs, clutching his chest. “You sound like someone I know” he admits.

She stares at her son _hergreatestaccomplishment_ with marvel _._ “Well, they are right”

He smiles at her. “I can’t deny you that”

“Was it Wayne?” she asks him, wondering if the other man thought the same, her, _their,_ son deserves the best.

He shakes his head slowly. “No, he, he is another CEO of another company”

She raises an eyebrow. “From Gotham?”

“No” he admits, “he is foreign, he has an eco company, you wouldn’t know him” he doesn’t reveal anything else.

She nods. “Well, he is right, if Wayne doesn’t treat you like you deserve, then he doesn’t have any right to have your loyalty or to have you being part of his family”

He nods at her. “I think, I think you know what your greatest failure and your greatest accomplishment are now”

“ _You”_ he looks at her, “you are my greatest creation after all”

“I am, aren’t I?” he runs his fingers through his hair. “I think it’s time for me to leave”

“I’m sorry, for what it’s worth” she apologizes, “I’ll try to change” 

He stares at her. “There’s something else” she looks at him, “the spell, it will erase this memories, you won’t remember any of this, but you will know, when you look at me, you will see your greatest accomplishment” he gets up and she does the same, “and your greatest failure, and you’ll make me feel like that too”

“I'm sorry” she repeats it and she means it.

A tear escapes his eyes, he doesn’t acknowledge it. “Don’t be, I was used to it by now,” she clenches her jaw, “besides, you won’t be last one to look at me like that”

She steps closer to him and caresses his face with her hands, it’s something she’s not used to doing, she has never done this with her Timothy.

He leans into her hands. “Thank you for teaching me to be strong,” he mutters.

_No, I’m sorry for teaching you to be strong_ , she wants to say, but all of a sudden there’s a bright white light and a strong noise.

She closes her eyes.

She finds herself in the middle of the kitchen and as she looks around she finds the table with two empty dishes.

“Is everything all right? I heard a noise” Jack appears by the kitchen’s door.

She opens her mouth. “Yeah, I was just eating,” she tells him.

“Oh, okay, I'm going to bed, we still have our flight at 10 am, don’t forget” he leaves her in the silence of the kitchen.

She puts the dishes on the sink and leaves to change too, trying to remember what she was going to do after eating.

She doesn’t even remember mentioning that she was hungry, how did Mrs. Mac knew she was going to be eating late at night?

She forgets it as soon as she arrives to her office, she still has work to do.

* * *

“Goodbye Mother” Timothy stands in front of them, Mrs. Mac behind him.

Janet stares at him and remembers the notes she read last night, his teachers letting them know that Timothy has been skipping classes, she couldn’t care less as long as he gets good grades.

So she doesn’t say anything.

“We’ll be back before you know it, we’ll bring you a souvenir” Jack tells him.

Timothy glances at Jack, a small smile on his lips. “Yes Father, I’ll wait for it”

Janet stays quiet and only looks at Timothy, he locks eyes with her, and for a moment she sees someone else, taller, older, for a few seconds she feels proud.

She blinks and it’s gone. “Mrs. Mac we’ll let you know when we will be back, our last stop is in three months, we’ll by visiting Haiti, but my assistant will let you know on any changes”

“Of course Mrs. Drake”

Janet nods at her and goes back to look at Timothy.

Why does she feel nervous out of the sudden?

“Make me proud Timothy” she says at the end.

He blinks at her. “Always Mother”

She smirks at him and gets a little smirk back.

It looks good on him, makes him look deadly, capable, powerful.

They leave.

But she doesn’t come back.

**Author's Note:**

> always wanted to write a time travel tim fic


End file.
